Meet Indiana's opponent: New Mexico State

By Brent Yarina, BTN.com Senior Editor, 5 years ago

Meet Indiana's opponent: New Mexico State

By Brent Yarina, BTN.com Senior Editor, 5 years ago

Indiana, in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008, drew a No. 4 seed in the South Region and will play No. 13 seed New Mexico State at 9:45 p.m. ET Thursday. Before the game tips off in Portland, BTN.com web editor Brent Yarina introduces you to the WAC tournament champs. A little sampling: Did you know one of the Aggies assistants led Kentucky to the 1996 NCAA national championship? Meet New Mexico State in this post

The Aggies have three players who measure at least 6-foot-10. The best of the tree-like bunch: Hamidu Rahman, a 6-foot-11 senior who’s averaging 10 ppg, 5.9 rpg and 1.1 bpg.

Remember the name Tony Delk? You should. The former Kentucky sharpshooter and NBA veteran is an assistant for the Aggies. He, of course, led the Wildcats to the 1996 NCAA national championship.

The Aggies went a WAC-best 5-1 in neutral court games this season, the only loss coming against Southern Miss in the Great Alaska Shootout.

New Mexico State cruised to WAC tournament title, beating No. 7 seed Fresno State, No. 6 seed Hawai’i and No. 5 seed Louisiana Tech by an average of 17.3 points per game, including a 82-57 victory over Louisiana Tech in the championship game.

Star Wendell McKines owns a ridiculous 21 double-doubles this season. To put that in perspective, Big Ten Player of the Year Draymond Green has 19.

Cary Edmondson-US PRESSWIRE

Brent Yarina is a web editor and blogger for BTN.com. Find all of his work here and follow him on Twitter at @BTNBrentYarina.